Last night, I played before, after and in between three bands that I think fall into the "metalcore" category. Don't ask me. I don't get all of those metal and hardcore subgenres. Now, this isn't such a bad thing considering that one of the best gigs of my life was the night that Carlos and I opened up for Crom, where we, literally, had people hanging from the rafters. And, overall, last night's gig went surprisingly well. I haven't practiced I don't know how long, didn't know what I was going to play and didn't bring my monitor. That said, outside of some volume issues at one or two points, it was a tight set. I didn't write down a playlist, though. (But I can tell you that I love Carlos' Nam:Live "Church of Nam" 12" and that people were dancing and loving it.)

Anyhow, in my little corner of Red Dragon Studios, I grabbed the Stevie Nicks album that B. Monsoon gave me for my birthday and played "Stand Back," thus making my friend (who booked me) dance and scream "Liz! I love this song." Then, as I was about to dance my way into mixing The Gossip "Standing in the Way of Control," a guy approached me. He had long blonde hair, a straggly goatee and was wearing a blazer and jeans. Total Seattle dinner party, not your typical trainspotter look.

"I don't think anyone is enjoying this," he said.

I laughed, thinking he was joking. "Well, they should."

Then he just stared at me like I was delusional. I also detected an eyeroll.

Hey, I think I just got dissed.

Had I not been having such a good night, I would have snapped back at him. However, I was in the midst of playing Songs of Female Empowerment and no silly longhaired boy was going to throw me into a tailspin. I said nothing. He walked away.

An hour later, one of the bands was prepping the stage and I heard the second of two people ask to use my power strip. Guess who it was.

For only the second time in my life, I was dissed by someone on the same bill as me (totally not cool). This time, however, I was nice and let the guy use my power strip.

I had to put together year end lists for two different publications. In any other year, I might have needed two lists to compile all of my favorite releases. This year was different and now I think I should go on the record and say that, as a music fan, I am sorely disappointed. Even in the midst of the grungiest years of the 1990s, I was not so disgusted by the amount of truly miserable music. Let's put it this way, when I start giving points technical aptitude without mentioning the purely emotional response of the music itself, it's because there aren't enough synonyms for "repetitive emo bullshit" to put in use.
The first time I drafted a list of favorites, I realized that most of the records listed were actually released in 2005 (Ladytron, Editors, The Presets). Naturally, The Knife ended up in first place because The Knife actually has vision. Maybe every band this year has a vision of some sort, but 98% of those involve dreams of My Chemical Romancing the world. 2006 was the year I wretched at nearly every music magazine cover I saw (Panic! at the Disco has its moments, but not enough for a cover; If My Chemical Romance becomes the biggest band in the world, there is something wrong with the world; Don't even get me started on Fergie). 2006 was also the year that I figured I'm not really a hipster since I only think Cold War Kids and Tapes n' Tapes are alright.
It's not even that most of the Class of 2006 is technically awful. If they were (as in the case of Whitestarr and Mickey Avalon), I could at least enjoy the sadistic pleasure of cheap shots. No, this year's bands were, on the whole, just boring and that's a crime against music almost on par with a Whitestarr show.
This decade started out right. Primal Scream unleashed XTRMNTR, which was full ever bit of political rage embroiled within the L.A. DNC protests and Battle of Seattle in late 1999 and set to a bombastic dancefloor score. Later on that year, The Avalanches released should-be-classic Since I Left You, compiled solely of samples and featuring a title track with more soul than anything on the radio at that time. Ladytron released the singles that would go to form 604 the following year. White Stripes released De Stijl.
The following year, The Faint brought forth Danse Macabre and electroclash hit. As much as we complained about the copyrighted term bringing together artists in various parts of the world, most of whom were considered musical outcasts a few short years before, there was some quality work released during this time. Felix, Kittin and the rest made us dance in ways that we hadn't in years. ADULT. did more to truly embody the spirit of punk rock than most bands who claim to be punk rock. Bis released some of its best music before splitting. For those of us with a penchant for purching music, 2001 and 2002 were the years we went nuts in the shops, even as electroclash turned into dance rock and Miss Kittin and the Hacker gave way to DFA.
So what happened? Maybe it's because underground music was appropriated by the mainstream before the underground could get props by people other than hipsters. Maybe it was because, with few exceptions, the indie bands weren't breaking through, but for some reason a gang of unknowns became The Killers and then every rock band added a keyboard to say it was dance even though the drumbeats were off-kilter. Maybe the things that have been brewing for three years culminated in the shittiness of 2006.
This isn't to say that everything in 2006 was bad, but I'll leave the goodies for another post.

If you want to see Under the Influence of Giants for free at The Roxy tomorrow night, click here and enter the contest.

I went to Tower Records today for three reasons: 1) The store closes in nine days; 2) Christmas is coming and I haven't done my shopping; 3) I need to turn in year-end lists and most of the music I heard this year ranged from "eh" to "Mon Dieu, how did this band get signed?!" Now I am here to tell you to get your ass to Tower. If you are in the Valley, go to the one on Nordhoff across from Northridge Mall. CDs are 60% off and since most people in Northridge have no taste, there is tons of good stuff. I think I paid $6 for a House of Love import disc. It was the last one. There are still stacks of this year's releases from Phoenix, Nine Black Alps, James Figurine, Mylo (domestic) and Editors (domestic). I was able to come home with fun stuff for me, indie rock for my sister, angst-filled smart guy tunes for my brother (i.e. more in line with Nick Cave than My Chemical Romance), Eurodance for my mom and even sci-fi for my dad.

Sadly, the anime section is bare, save for a few boxed sets of Ghost in the Shell, which I would have purchased had they not still been out of my cheapo price range at 50% off.

I was chatting with a friend of mine in Chicago today and explaining to him that L.A. is completely dead throughout the holidays. The Faint played last week, the Acoustic Christmas (did tickets actually exist for that?) was last weekend and now there will be nothing until New Year's Eve and then there will be another lull until MLK weekend, when the scene will pick up again. In the meantime, there are a handful of local bands playing to solely local crowds, a Christmas fundraiser here and there, and that is it. I'm not sure if it's like that in any other city.
L.A. is a weird place. When we say that no one is really from L.A., it's the God's honest truth for almost everyone except for yours truly. I think I can count on my fingers the number of friends I have that are actually from L.A. Out of those, fewer of us grew up inside the city limits and, even then, most of that contingent (myself included) consists of Vals, who a lot of people don't consider to be really L.A.
When I was a little kid, the whole native thing was weird because my friends would all be out of town visiting grandparents in cities that sounded like foreign countries, like Peoria, and I was stuck here with no one to hang out at the mall with me. My dad's family moved out to L.A. shortly after getting off the boat at Ellis Island in 1910. My mom's family made a pit stop in Ohio before coming to L.A. in 1962. That said, outside of a handful of relatives in Fresno, CA and Cleveland, OH, my whole family is in Greater Los Angeles. I have no choice but to stay in L.A. for Christmas.
All this is meant to say that I'm going to be bored shitless this month. At least I will be bored with a local boyfriend and a handful of friends who also know that now is the time to enjoy a plethora of after dark street parking.